Boy, 9, Youngest In World To Be Diagnosed With Testicular Cancer

A nine-year-old boy is the youngest in the world to be diagnosed with a rare form of testicular cancer.

Jack Bristow was diagnosed after he was twice accidentally kicked in the groin in the school playground two weeks apart – which ended up saving his life.

After the first knock, Jack was given painkillers, but when he was hit again just before Christmas, the pain was so severe that the schoolboy had to be rushed to hospital.

Doctors found his right testicle swelled up to 10.6 inches in circumference and he was diagnosed with Seminomas, a form of testicular cancer. There was no other option but for Jack to have his right testicle removed.

He has since shaved his head after his hair began falling out during chemotherapy treatment to fight the disease.

His mum and dad have been told he has a 95 per cent chance of survival.

Jack's dad Dan, 32, from Basingstoke, Hampshire, said: "Both kicks were completely accidental but it is thanks to those kicks that we found out he had cancer.

"If that had not happened we would never have known - it helped save his life."

Jack told his local paper: "It doesn't really feel like I have cancer.

"I don't like going to hospital and taking part in new treatments - I am not looking forward to blood transfusions. Sometimes it's really painful but sometimes it's okay. I'm not a fan of needles though.

"It is good on my ward though, I have made lots of friends there."

Jack's mum Joanne, 29, said: "The doctors said he is the youngest in the world as far as they are aware to be diagnosed with Seminomas.

"I cannot explain how we feel. Until you go through it yourself it's hard to describe how you're feeling.

"It's like you go numb trying to deal with it all.

"Jack is taking it all a whole lot better than we thought he would - it's probably affected us more than him."

The family - including Jack's younger brother Alfie, seven, - have raised £1,800 in less than three weeks for the Piam Brown Children's ward at Southampton General Hospital, where Jack is treated.

A Cancer Research UK spokeswoman said: "Only 11 boys aged under 15 were diagnosed with testicular cancer between 2009 and 2011 in the UK."

Dr Alan Worsley, senior science information officer at Cancer Research UK, said: "Only a handful of children are diagnosed each year in the UK with testicular cancer.

"The good news is that, thanks to research into better treatments, most patients diagnosed with testicular cancer survive."